Starting over??

[Seachickens13]

Hi guys, I inherited a chicken coop from the previous owner of our house. This was great, but when I looked inside, he hadn't cleaned it for 2 years! There was solid poop on the floor, about 30+ cm deep. I tried cleaning it out but it is like trying to shovel rock. I've found bowls under there! Should I start over with a new (clean) coop, or if not, how should I soften the layer of poop? Thanks

 

[chooks4life]

Lime it, i.e. calcium carbonate not any caustic limes, water it in, repeat a few times over a few weeks, possibly try to dig it in as it gets softer... A slow or soft sprinkler is a better bet than a hose or bucket which will wash the lime straight off it.

I don't know about your stance on disease, but to me that coop would be a jackpot. It would contain many pathogens from the previous flock to which my chickens could be exposed and therefore build on their current library of immunological information. So, something to educate their immune systems further.

So I would treat it with lime but beyond that focus on building their immune systems and getting them into good shape to best respond to the pathogens in it. If you know the last flock died of something quite virulent, there are other things you can treat with, but normally I wouldn't bother at all.

Others would basically burn the coop to the ground and start over.

But anywhere a previous flock has been, chances are there are long-lived pathogens dormant in the soil, waiting for their host species to return. In my experience the more you try to protect them the more they will be weak and susceptible. You can lime the whole property but you can't perfectly clear it of all pathogens present. Nor should you seek to in my opinion, though reducing an overload to lower levels is always a good idea.

Best wishes.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome! I would talk to the previous owner if possible; how long since chickens or other fowl lived there, any diseases he is aware that they had, etc. If it's been ten years, and you clean it out, probably it's fine. If it's been much sooner, and the flock had Marek's disease, then clean it out, realize that the coop and environment are contaminated, and only buy Marek's vaccinated chicks, and ISOLATE them for three or four weeks so they develop immunity, before exposing them to your environment. Old wooden coops can be cleaned up but not sanitized well, much less sterilized. Mary

 

[chooks4life]

On the topic of cleaning it... Healthy soil controls pathogens, sickened soil cannot.

So using chemicals of the synthetic type to control things in the end only succeeds in providing a better environment for pathogens as it's also killed the beneficials that naturally control them, and opportunistic bacteria etc are generally much quicker to adapt and repopulate, and favor sickened environments devoid of their natural opponents and competitors.

I would get a garbage bag full of soil from a forest or something like that and spread that over the coop floor to inoculate the soil with beneficial fungi, bacteria, microorganisms etc. They can and do outcompete pathogens in non-poisoned environments and will break down poops rapidly, keeping the coop stench free.

Chucking down some hay on top and still proceeding with the liming and watering can help. If you want to start a deep litter of the true composting sort that's the way to go. If you do anything else, pretty much, then you're going to have to regularly clean out your coop floor, it's going to stink on a regular basis, and in my experience your chickens will not be as healthy.

Alternatively you may just want to concrete it over. Which won't make the rest of the soil on your property any safer of course, but it can potentially control some of the most pathogenic areas. But rodents, heavy rains, plant roots, and your chooks digging under edges etc can still exhume the pathogens despite that. Mine have dug up some interesting illnesses in past. Old coops have stories to tell, lol. Not trying to scare you, lol, none of mine died from them, and they have visited and lived in many very old coops as I've traveled them far and wide.

Vaccinating your first lot of chooks may be an idea, or vaccinating indefinitely if that's your choice, but it's nothing more than a bandaid solution which creates its own problems. However if you want to keep getting in certain types of chooks and not breed your own lines, it may be your only solution. Some, particularly show and commercial lines, are often extremely susceptible to most common diseases which wouldn't bother the average backyard mutt.

Marek's is ubiquitous, pretty much unavoidable, the majority of all chooks are resistant to it and won't be killed or even sickened by it, and the vaccines don't prevent infection, only prevent one symptom (the tumors) from growing inside susceptible animals. The problem with vaccinating is that it enables the weak ones with susceptible genetics to survive to pass on their genes, and then despite the vaccine some people still lose chooks to Marek's with each generation. Your luck may be better than theirs, who knows. I know my luck with not vaccinating has been better than with vaccinating, though.

Many researchers and vets recommend breeding for resistance, and I do that and find it far more successful than using vaccines and trying to indefinitely avoid the disease. Even if your place is free of Marek's, it can be brought in from dozens of miles away via wind, wild birds, animals, vehicles, etc. The general consensus among experts is that if your flock has not tested clear, assume you have it. Or will get it sooner or later.

Good luck.

 

[Seachickens13]

Thanks, I didn't expect this much info I will try to lime the inside of it and water it to soften it. I think my chickens are almost immune to any hygiene-related illnesses as they have lived in that coop all their lifemy dad says he'll make a new one in the summer, but I will try my best to make it better for my crooks until then

 

[chooks4life]

lol you're welcome, I know I do overdo it a bit sometimes

I think it will have given your chooks some quite decent immune systems, if you had any very weak ones by now chances are you would have lost them.

There's a chance digging up the run will expose some pathogens but who knows for sure.

Good luck.